I have a 50 cal T/C Hawkens and i am using a #11 cap. When i put the cap over the nipple it just barely goes on and sometimes looks slightly tilted. The manual says place the cap over the nipple but it does not say how far it should go on. Should the cap be going all the way over the nipple? It seems to be too much resistance to push on completely by hand but if i fire just a cap with no powder the hammer pushes it down over the nipple. Also they are hard to remove after firing, is there an insertion/removal tool i should be looking to get.
Cap onto nipple - How far?
- Thread starter typhun
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frontiergander
Member
All the way down. Use some sand paper or put it in a drill press and carefully turn the nipple down until the cap seats better.
A pocket knife is what a lot of folks use to remove those hard #11 caps.
A pocket knife is what a lot of folks use to remove those hard #11 caps.
BCRider
Member
All the way down and seated firmly. There's no real middle ground for this. If it wedges on the taper so it sits high then the first hammer strike needs to seat the cap first before it can pinch and force the priming compound to ignite. And the softening of the hammer blow by the need for seating the cap first means there is likely not enough velocity left in the hammer to produce the snappy impact needed to force the ignition.
If it barely fits as you say then something is wacky. The normal situation is that it fits on easily but needs a firm pressure of the thumb or a push stick to seat the last few thou needed to flare out the skirt of the cap and hold it neatly in place. This last few thousandths is anywhere from barely felt to maybe as much as 1/32 inch. If it needs more seating than that I'd say your nipple is too big.
I'd say try other caps as well. But you're already using a #11. I believe that CCI #11's are a little bigger than Remington #11's. Hopefully someone will confirm or correct that. But if you're already using the bigger of the #11's then your only recourse if it's seating poorly is a new nipple from a known good maker such as Treso or Slix Shot.
If it barely fits as you say then something is wacky. The normal situation is that it fits on easily but needs a firm pressure of the thumb or a push stick to seat the last few thou needed to flare out the skirt of the cap and hold it neatly in place. This last few thousandths is anywhere from barely felt to maybe as much as 1/32 inch. If it needs more seating than that I'd say your nipple is too big.
I'd say try other caps as well. But you're already using a #11. I believe that CCI #11's are a little bigger than Remington #11's. Hopefully someone will confirm or correct that. But if you're already using the bigger of the #11's then your only recourse if it's seating poorly is a new nipple from a known good maker such as Treso or Slix Shot.
Pancho
Member
In the past I'd advise that you should forget about using #11 caps and convert you gun to musket caps but they are too hard to find now. So I'll second BCRider's thought and replace the nipple, your's might have been dryfired and mushroomed. Slix Shot or Track of the Wolf sell excellent replacement nipples for under $7. By the way the tread size for your TC is 1/4-28
Dframe
Member
All the way down. I carry a small wooden dowell to push them home at the range
Thx i was using some CVA caps but had a new package of Remington so tried them. The Remington were larger but still would not fit. I had to use a file on the nipple to get it to the point that the Remington's would fit but the CVA caps still don't. Do you all find one type of cap that fits and then stick with that brand? Will a new nipple have the same issue where i have to use only certain makes of caps or will i end up having different nipples for different brands of caps?
Milkmaster
Member
The nipples are easy to change on those TC guns. Maybe it is the nipple and not the cap! Make sure someone has not dry fired it and buggered up the nipple needlessly.
If the nipple is buggered up (or simply won't fully seat an industry standard like CCI #11 easily), ...
- Chuck it in a cordless drill...
- Using a strip of 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper between your fingers (or on a hard sanding block)...
- Polish/sand the cone down to where it will readily seat the cap.
Don't live with having to use force to seat nipples. Sooner or later it will bite you.
- Chuck it in a cordless drill...
- Using a strip of 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper between your fingers (or on a hard sanding block)...
- Polish/sand the cone down to where it will readily seat the cap.
Don't live with having to use force to seat nipples. Sooner or later it will bite you.
BCRider
Member
Apparently they are so hard to find that I didn't even know that one COULD find such a thing.... I guess that's what I get for being relatively new to all this... 
If it had been dry fired much or at all I'd expect this to show by the conical edge being beaten down.
If it had been dry fired much or at all I'd expect this to show by the conical edge being beaten down.
Pancho
Member
musket cap nipples
BCRider, the nipples are readily available but the caps are not so much now-a-days.
I converted my hunting guns over years ago because the top hat musket cap is so much larger than the #11 caps they are easier to handle in the cold weather and a lot hotter and because of the top hat shape they are easier to de-cap rarely needing a knife to do so.
BCRider, the nipples are readily available but the caps are not so much now-a-days.
I converted my hunting guns over years ago because the top hat musket cap is so much larger than the #11 caps they are easier to handle in the cold weather and a lot hotter and because of the top hat shape they are easier to de-cap rarely needing a knife to do so.
rcflint
Member
CCI caps are smaller than Remingtons, size for size. I saw a photo of a shooters thumb on one of these websites, opened to the bone by a cap exploding when he seated it, suggesting very strongly that one should use a push stick to seat the cap...I doesn't happen often but once is too much.
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